Meta formerly known as Facebook and the parent company of Facebook, the social media platform, has announced new measures majorly targetting social media users in the country ahead of the August polls.
In the new measures, the social media giant has deployed a team of local experts to assist in curating content shared across its platform in a bid to crack down on fake news and misinformation so as to help the country deliver safe elections.
According to Meta, the experts deployed have been working closely with Kenyan election authorities as well as partners.
The company has also set up a dedicated Kenyan Elections Operation Centre to keep track of the content shared by social media users regarding elections.
At the same time, the social firm also announced they have rolled out new tools and rules aimed at ensuring transparency in political advertising, promoting civic engagement, enhancing digital literacy and fighting voter interference.
In the wake of the new development, Meta revealed that it took down 42,000 posts that breached its violence and incitement policies as well as more than 37,000 hate remarks made on Facebook and Instagram.
“As part of its elections work, Meta removes the most serious kinds of information from Facebook and Instagram, such as content that is intended to suppress voting or could contribute to imminent violence or physical harm,” Meta added.
Social media platforms have frequently been used as a means of skewing information and misleading electorates during campaigns and voting periods.
This has seen a number of effects among electorates such as losing trust in the country’s democracy.
